Hello! I’m pretty new to collecting in the TCG, I’ve been a part of the VGC Pokemon community since about 2012 and have been interested in Pokemon most of my life.
Recently I have dug up some of my gold star cards and some first edition holo cards in foreign languages (European languages specifically) and I was wondering if I should grade some of them. I have never sent cards to PSA before and I don’t know much about the process, so any amount of detail will help so much. Some of the gold star cards have a bit of whitening (I think that’s the proper term; some of the holo comes through on non-holo parts of the card) on the front and one has some tear on the side of it.
Should I send them to PSA or just keep them as protected as I can from now on?
Thank you!
Typically the term “whitening” is used with respect to back edge wear, where the normally blue edges have dings or marks that reveal the white layer of cardboard underneath the blue ink.
What I think you may be referencing is usually termed “silvering” where the holo shows through around the edges sometimes due to low factory print quality, likely more dull blades during cutting of the sheets. Jungle 1st edition is notorious for this silvering. This tends to have less of an effect on grade if it is factory silvering. Whitening tends to knock cards down more so than silvering in my experiences.
It is great experience to grade cards yourself, but you can also learn a fair bit just browsing through eBay for various grade levels. Look for hi res scans and you can pick up a lot on what each grade looks like. There is much more variability in lower grades, and to answer the other part of your question Reina hit on it well. They sound like they likely won’t gain in any value when graded, but if you are just looking for an attractive and more secure/safe way to store and preserve them, grading is a great option and the forum service is a great entry level way to start with some grading for very little investment.
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